Dell Widescreen Deal Days are upon us!

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?threadid=211462&postid=0#post0

Apparently the 20.1" 2005FPW Widescreens are about $354 now and damn are they sexy.

Begone, Dell's marketing plant!!

/run to check his available credit with Dell

I almost crapped my pants when I (mis) read that the 24" screens were only $354.... (which is still a great deal for the 20"...)

TheWalt wrote:

I almost crapped my pants when I (mis) read that the 24" screens were only $354.... (which is still a great deal for the 20"...)

So did I cause I just ordered a 24" monster and thought I paid too much. It gets here Friday *glee*

I'd warn everyone away from Dell after my experience through Dell Hell from April of last year through February this year. Basically, their products are great unless you ever have to deal with tech support or customer service. Lord forbid you ever want to return an item.

Man, that is hard to pass up. I have that exact same monitor sitting on my desk at work, and it is lovely. Of course, I have a lovely 20" CRT sitting on my desk at home that I got for $20 from my company (love those old equipment sales, you know) and it doesn't really need to be replaced. But damn it is hard to pass up that beauty at that price.

zeroKFE wrote:

Man, that is hard to pass up. I have that exact same monitor sitting on my desk at work, and it is lovely. Of course, I have a lovely 20" CRT sitting on my desk at home that I got for $20 from my company (love those old equipment sales, you know) and it doesn't really need to be replaced. But damn it is hard to pass up that beauty at that price.

I think we should buy it. Why not? We'll only live once.

Oh, you devil! Taking advantage of my weak spot for shiny new technology...

...but seriously, how long does the deal last?

Farscry wrote:

I'd warn everyone away from Dell after my experience through Dell Hell from April of last year through February this year. Basically, their products are great unless you ever have to deal with tech support or customer service. Lord forbid you ever want to return an item. :(

Hmm.. my 2005FPW just died last night. The power supply is all buggered up and there was some crackling and popping, kind of freaked me out. After talking with the tech support in India (lady had a heavy Indian accent) they told me they would ship a new one ASAP and all I'd have to do is return the old one when it gets there. I was pretty impressed they would do that (without me giving them a CC number too).

By the way zero, the 360 looks glorious on the 2005 with the VGA cable. It makes a nice alternative

Swat wrote:
Farscry wrote:

I'd warn everyone away from Dell after my experience through Dell Hell from April of last year through February this year. Basically, their products are great unless you ever have to deal with tech support or customer service. Lord forbid you ever want to return an item. :(

Hmm.. my 2005FPW just died last night. The power supply is all buggered up and there was some crackling and popping, kind of freaked me out. After talking with the tech support in India (lady had a heavy Indian accent) they told me they would ship a new one ASAP and all I'd have to do is return the old one when it gets there. I was pretty impressed they would do that (without me giving them a CC number too).

By the way zero, the 360 looks glorious on the 2005 with the VGA cable. It makes a nice alternative :)

Yea dell tech support is quite good at getting that done. Farscry situation occured when he sent his TV back to the completely wrong place which then buggered everything up on both ends.

Swat wrote:

By the way zero, the 360 looks glorious on the 2005 with the VGA cable. It makes a nice alternative :)

Heh heh, you're all devils, aren't you?

Seriously, though, we don't have much need for a new monitor. We've got a brand new 30" Sony CRT HDTV (our living room isn't big enough for anything larger, really) and a nice 20" CRT monitor for our computer, so we're pretty much set for display technology at the moment. The only real purpose I could see for the thing would be to set up a "docking station" for my work laptop at home that mirrors what I have at the office, but I prefer to just use the laptop on the couch when I'm at home anyway.

I'm waiting for Dell to run some deals for one of these babies...

IMAGE(http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/A0390978.jpg)IMAGE(http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/A0390982.jpg)

Multi-screen goodness

That was partially right, Sinatar. Though the reason I sent it to the "wrong" location (back to the shipping dock in Austin rather than the receiving dock in Austin) was due to two things:

1) Dell didn't include the return airbill that they had stated they would include with the replacement unit
2) Fedex advised me on how to address the return, so I followed their instructions

But the thing that really burned me was how unprofessional and unhelpful Dell was throughout the entire mess. That totally soured me on their idea of excellent customer service, which apparently equals "blame the customer and make them figure out their own way out of the mess". Fortunately I eventually got a local Fedex person who was willing to do the extra legwork needed to dig through their inefficient system and find my original shipping records to prove to Dell that I had shipped the item.

Even after that I went through another month and a half of dealing with Dell, who came up with three separate excuses as to why they had f*cked up before all was said and done.

So, sure, the initial mistake was made by me -- due to Dell dropping the ball in the first place and me mistakenly trusting that Fedex knew what they were talking about.

I'm just advising people to be aware, that's all. Me, I don't care HOW good a deal anyone offers on an internet or mail order anymore; I'm strictly buying pricy things locally so I can stomp over and deal with a real person if things get messy. Blanket parties for everyone!

Vega wrote:

pictures of some sweet ass monitors

Now THAT I would buy in a heart beat at a sub $500 price!

Of course, the first one is essentially that set-up I have at work with my 15" Powerbook screen and the 2005FPW...

Vega wrote:

I'm waiting for Dell to run some deals for one of these babies...

IMAGE(http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/A0390978.jpg)IMAGE(http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/images/products/large/A0390982.jpg)

Multi-screen goodness

Those aren't actually made by dell so don't hold your breath on any sweet deals.

I am holding my breathe for a drop of price of the dell 30" monitor. *still holding*

Man I wish I had the money right now... this 17" CRT is brutal.

lethial wrote:

I am holding my breathe for a drop of price of the dell 30" monitor. *still holding*

dont bother its complete crap... btw the reason Dell is blowing out old 20" and 24" LCD's is that the new HDCP enabled 20's and 24"s are launching this month.

TheGameguru wrote:

btw the reason Dell is blowing out old 20" and 24" LCD's is that the new HDCP enabled 20's and 24"s are launching this month.

Any idea how much they'll launch for?

TheGameguru wrote:
lethial wrote:

I am holding my breathe for a drop of price of the dell 30" monitor. *still holding*

dont bother its complete crap...

wha?!? It's the same screen as Apple's 30", which I've seen and those rock. Care to elaborate on Dell's version?

I'm sorely tempted to order this and use it not just for my computer, but a 360 as well.

btw the reason Dell is blowing out old 20" and 24" LCD's is that the new HDCP enabled 20's and 24"s are launching this month.

For some reason, HDCP doesn't excite me...

souldaddy wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
lethial wrote:

I am holding my breathe for a drop of price of the dell 30" monitor. *still holding*

dont bother its complete crap...

wha?!? It's the same screen as Apple's 30", which I've seen and those rock. Care to elaborate on Dell's version?

I dont own the Apple one so I cant comment on that.. but the 2 30" Dell's I got were pretty much substandard.. I found they ghost more than my 24" Dell's and while I accept some light bleeding the amount of light bleeding on the 30" was even more pronounced..add to that with very bizzare color rendering across the entire panel...the left side Blue's where different from the right side Blue's

Given their price and lack of inputs I'd much rather at that point get 2 24" LCD's

GG: OMG you have two 30" LCDs!!! Can I please have one please?;)

What graphic card or cards do you have? You must need some beefy system to drive those babies...

The problem with the big LCDs is that the native resolution is too high for most graphic cards. Which is why I am still staying with my 24' and 20" dells.

lethial wrote:

GG: OMG you have two 30" LCDs!!! Can I please have one please?;)

What graphic card or cards do you have? You must need some beefy system to drive those babies...

The problem with the big LCDs is that the native resolution is too high for most graphic cards. Which is why I am still staying with my 24' and 20" dells.

lethial, meet Game Guru. He pwns you.

lethial wrote:

GG: OMG you have two 30" LCDs!!! Can I please have one please?;)

What graphic card or cards do you have? You must need some beefy system to drive those babies...

The problem with the big LCDs is that the native resolution is too high for most graphic cards. Which is why I am still staying with my 24' and 20" dells.

I use them at work.. they suck for gaming for the above reasons I mentioned...and the fact that I like to run games at the LCD's native resolution and there simply isnt a system and graphic card combo that can drive the 30" LCD's at native resolution and still perform well in most modern games.

I'm still using my Dell 24"'s for all my gaming systems at my house.. in my office at my house I have my trusty HP 23" which believe it or not is even better than the Dell 24"s it has an awesome picture and even less ghosting than the Dell's.. its one of my favorite LCD's I've ever owned.

I threw up WoW and FEAR on my Dell 32" LCD TV and even though its only running at 1366X768 it does look pretty cool to run them on a large screen... 360 looks nice on it also.. but not as good as the 360 connected to my Plasma..

Plasma > * (except for the new 3chip DLP front projectors.. I gotta get me one of them soon)

TheWalt wrote:
btw the reason Dell is blowing out old 20" and 24" LCD's is that the new HDCP enabled 20's and 24"s are launching this month.

For some reason, HDCP doesn't excite me...

Ditto. What does HDCP give us? Better image quality, or authentication of input? In the latter case, who cares?

HDCP gives you nothing. As with all things related to DRM, it only takes things away from valid, paying customers. If there was ANYTHING that would make me buy the monitor now it would be that future revisions would be encumbered with this crap.

Edit: I realize that the question may have been rhetorical, but the whole thing angers me so much that I had to say something.

Yoyoson wrote:
TheWalt wrote:
btw the reason Dell is blowing out old 20" and 24" LCD's is that the new HDCP enabled 20's and 24"s are launching this month.

For some reason, HDCP doesn't excite me...

Ditto. What does HDCP give us? Better image quality, or authentication of input? In the latter case, who cares?

Basically Hollywood's next gen DVD formats have next gen copy protection, which Microsoft is gladly enforcing in Windows Vista. HDCP is their attempt to plug the "analog hole" by forcing everyone to have a HDCP copy protection compliant device from the second the laser touches the DVD to the second the monitor displays the image. This means all monitors without HDCP support will not be able to play next gen high def content, which will be enforced by Microsoft in Windows Vista by downsampling all non-HDCP monitors to 480p. It is, like all overzealous copy protection schemes, bullsh*t.

I'd consider it a bonus, as any high def content I'd download illegally before using HDCP

HDCP = RIAA's master plan to screw paying customers

Edit: speaking of the new Dell monitors:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.asp...

Oh btw, none of the current gen graphic cards can play HDCP protected contents either... So that means not only will we need new monitors, but new graphic cards...

uh... first I mentioned this simply to explain that new Dell revisions of the popular 20" and 24" Widescreen monitors are coming out.

second.. HDCP in a fricking monitor doesnt do squat to you if you simply dont care one rats ass about playing HDCP protected content on your PC.

Its not like HDCP monitors "cripple" you or your PC in any way shape or form.

Bottom line if you want or need to playback Blu-Ray or HD-DVD on your PC (or more importantly your HTPC) you'll need Vista, and HDCP complaint VideoCard (and probably MPEGx capture card) and an HDCP enabled Monitor/TV